. >> we now recognize the gentleman from texas for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. the way i see the fast and furious operation based on all the information that i've received is that the united states government, justice department, a.t.f., we're aware of a situation where guns could be bought in the united states, serious weapons, automatic, semiautomatic, sniper rifles, bought by purchasers who were observed by federal authorities , wanted to watch the guns go to mexico, go to the drug cartels, and see where they ended up. here's how it ended up. 2,000 weapons, based on the information that we've received from your department, 600 of those weapons are accounted for, the vast majority are not accounted for. we don't know what country they're in and who's got them. but this operation is serious to me because people died with this ill-founded decision. we talk about the two americans , the two agents, one, brian terry in mexico, the two agents, but at least 200 mexican nationals died too because of the united states watching these weapons, knowing where they were go